A legal showdown is continuing to erupt over misconduct allegations in the filming of It Ends With Us, with Justin Baldoni suing Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for orchestrating a campaign to smear him.

Baldoni, in a lawsuit filed in New York federal court on Thursday, alleges extortion, defamation and claims related to breach of contract, among several others. Hes joined by his film studio, Wayfarer and its chief executive Jamey Heath, and their public relations representatives, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel. They seek at least $400 million. Also named in the lawsuit: Livelys husband Ryan Reynolds and Leslie Sloane, the actresses public relations representative of Vision PR, who didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Bryan Freedman, Baldonis lawyer, said the lawsuit is based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her teams duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.

He added, It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret.

The filing of the lawsuit follows Lively following through on suing Baldoni and his public relations team for allegedly marshaling a sophisticated, multi-tiered plan to undermine her reputation in retaliation for speaking up about sexual misconduct on the set of the film. The same day that legal action was initiated last month,Baldoni sued The New York Times for allegedly conspiring with Livelys public relations team to advance an unverified and self-serving narrative while ignoring evidence that contradicted her claims.

Among the many reasons the legal drama has fascinated Hollywood are the tangling web of relationships between the major players in the litigation. Shortly after cutting ties with Baldoni, WME which also represents Lively and her megastar husband Reynolds released a statement insisting that the married stars didnt pressure the agency to do drop him.

In Baldonis filing there is a claim that Reynolds pressured Baldonis agent at the Deadpool Wolverine premiere. This is not true, the agency said in a statement at the time. Baldonis former representative was not at the Deadpool Wolverine premiere nor was there any pressure from Reynolds or Lively at any time to drop Baldoni as a client.

Baldoni challenges the denial from WME and offers a clashing account of events.He says in the complaint that he received word that, during the premiere of his movie Deadpool Wolverine, Reynolds approached Baldonis agency, namely, an executive at WME, and expressed his deep disdain for Baldoni, suggesting the agency was working with a sexual predator (a phrase that uncoincidentally later appeared in the press) and, at a later date, demanded that the agent drop' him.